Trump's Tariffs Return, Kalshi's Midterms Hub, and Elon's AI "Odyssey"

Summary

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Pivot Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Trump's Tariffs Return, Kalshi's Midterms Hub, and Elon's AI "Odyssey"
Date: July 24, 2026
Hosts: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway
Location: CAO Summit, Los Angeles (recorded live)

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Overview

This episode finds Kara and Scott hosting Pivot live at the CAO Summit in Los Angeles, reflecting on memorable moments in tech, business, and politics against the backdrop of California’s “hellscape.” The conversation ranges from Trump’s return to aggressive tariffs on Canada, the rise of prediction markets in the midterms, the power struggle shaping AI and regulatory lobbying, to sweeping new regulations on tech and social media both in the US and abroad. With plenty of characteristic banter, the duo also weighs in on Tesla’s rocky earnings, China’s AI surge, and the phenomenon of microdramas, all while fielding sharp audience questions.

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Major Themes & Key Discussion Points

1. California Reflections & Universities ([01:38]-[07:15])

• Nostalgia & Notable Moments:
  Kara reminisces about historic tech interviews at the venue, including Steve Jobs’ final appearance and an early, nervous Mark Zuckerberg.
• Scott’s Appointment:
  Scott is named a regent of the University of California, highlighting its outsized innovation (75 Nobel prizes, 300,000 students).
  • "[UC] is the greatest innovation machine in history... more startups, creating more value than any nation in history, with the exception of the US and China.” — Scott ([03:50])
• Personal Academic Histories:
  Both hosts joke about their checkered university days and career beginnings, poking fun at GPAs and early setbacks.

2. 2026 Election & Democratic Candidates ([07:15]-[08:32])

• Kara shares recent interviews with leading Democratic hopefuls: Gina Raimondo, Pete Buttigieg, J.B. Pritzker.
• Scott’s blunt take: too much sexism and height bias in American politics, with Newsom likely favored.
  • "America likes to fall in love with someone they don't know well before Fox destroys them." — Scott ([08:03])
• Speculation about Jon Ossoff and the media cycles that make or break political newcomers.
• "I just hosted a fundraiser in 2020 for Michael Bennett. So I am not good at picking candidates." — Scott ([08:36])

3. Trump’s Tariffs on Canada & Trade Policy ([08:50]-[13:46])

• Tariff Details:
  Trump returns to tariff policy, slapping 50% duties on Canadian goods via the Smoot-Hawley Act; more nations soon to be targeted.
• Economic Impact:
  Scott warns of inflation’s corrosive effect, estimating $1,200 annual household costs if tariffs are expanded, with 90% of the burden paid by Americans.
  • "Tariffs will take approximately $1,000 toll on every household this year... about 90% of those tariffs are being borne by US consumers." — Scott ([10:13])
• Trade Asymmetry:
  Profits from US tech (e.g., iPhones, software) far outweigh Canadian timber or goods in margin and shareholder value.
• Why Tariffs?:
  Both hosts skeptical of logic or strategy behind the policy, calling it self-harmful and driven by grievance politics.
  • "If there’s any dramatic asymmetry in trade... it's the US. If anyone should be putting tariffs on a nation, logically they would be putting tariffs on us." — Scott ([11:56])
  • "They fucked up, they trusted us. That’s how Canada feels about the US right now." — Scott ([12:45])

4. Prediction Markets & Kalshi’s Midterms Hub ([13:48]-[18:06])

• Kalshi's Role:
  Kalshi launches a midterm forecasting hub, driving big money and attention to prediction markets.
• Debate on Validity:
  Kara is skeptical due to potential for gaming and insider bets; Scott believes "putting your money where your mouth is" reveals real sentiment.
  • "Polling companies are basically going out of business because if you want to know how someone... thinks, don't ask them what they think, ask them where they're putting their money." — Scott ([14:59])
• Risks:
  Scott worries most about young men becoming isolated and addicted to online gambling, exacerbating social dysfunction.
  • "We're slowly but surely evolving a new species of asocial, asexual males... blaming women for their romantic problems and immigrants for their economic problems." — Scott ([17:09])

5. Anthropic, AI Lobbying, and the New Tech Donor Class ([22:08]-[26:03])

• Anthropic’s Political Spend:
  The company invests $40M in pro-AI-regulation PACs, as OpenAI and crypto-related interests also pile into midterm races.
• Tech vs. Tech:
  Kara warns of a “Sharks vs. Jets” money-fueled culture war, where AI giants counter-lobby for their own corporate interests, not public good.
  • “Them entering even more politics is problematic for all of us... I don’t like either side. Pretty much.” — Kara ([25:13])
• Cynicism on Regulation:
  Both agree that Big Tech feigns openness to regulation while working behind the scenes to block or delay real rules.

6. China’s Rise in AI—and US Security/Competition Fears ([26:03]-[28:49])

• Chinese AI Ascendancy:
  Massive growth in token usage for Chinese open models (10% → 58% share in a year), with US models shifting up-market.
  • "I would argue that AI, on a volume level... China has already won. It's not a race to see who has the smartest model. It's a race to see who can put the most AI in the most people's hands." — Scott ([28:12])
• Market Bifurcation:
  US models: “Mercedes/BMW”—higher cost, more regulation, narrower adoption.
  Chinese: “Toyota/Honda”—cheaper, ubiquitous, less regulated.
• Risks:
  US shift from university to individual scientist funding risks eroding critical academic research.

7. France Bans Social Media for Children ([32:14]-[36:10])

• France’s Policy:
  First EU country to ban social for under-15s, tries to stem the tide of digital addiction and bullying.
• Scott's Take:
  “We're going to look back on this era... and think how do we let this happen to our kids?” Argues for universal bans, citing research that individualized parental restrictions leave kids ostracized (“unless it's a collective universal ban, it doesn’t work.” — Scott [34:29])
• Kara’s View:
  Sees momentum for similar rules in the US, notes social platforms are finally reaching out to critics, “They know we have a problem.”
• Cultural Commentary:
  Both agree there’s “bipartisan support,” and liken the impact on youth—especially girls—to “a giant eating disorder.”

8. Tesla's Earnings & Elon's Strategy ([36:54]-[42:38])

• Tesla’s Woes:
  Despite strong vehicle sales, margins shrink due to price-slashing and rising competition, especially from Chinese EVs.
• Elon's “Pivot”:
  Scott: Musk repeatedly pivots to grandiose promises (robo-taxis, robots, now putting quantum computers on the Moon) to buoy valuation.
  • “He will always say here’s the Robovin, here’s robots... to justify a software evaluation on a company that wraps steel around an axle.” — Scott ([40:20])
• Stock & Market Outlook:
  Both hosts argue Tesla remains massively overvalued, seeing fair share price near $30-$60 rather than over $100.
• AI Parallel:
  Scott notes, “Same thing happening in AI. China did it with EVs and batteries—80% of the value for 50% of the price.”

9. Elon’s Odyssey Rival & Film/Media Trends ([43:50]-[46:10])

• Elon’s Retort:
  In response to the success of “Woke Odyssey,” Elon’s “historically accurate” AI-powered Odyssey is predicted to flop.
  • “He’s mad about it... So I predict this movie is not gonna be very good.” — Kara ([44:19])
• Rise of Clip Content:
  Scott predicts that shorter, TikTok-style clip compilations will soon dominate major streaming platforms.
  • “The biggest show on television… is going to be a 60-minute compilation of two and three minute videos.” — Scott ([45:38])

10. Audience Q&A: Creator Recommendations & Next Big Tech Mogul ([46:18]-[54:49])

• Under-the-Radar Creators:
  • Scott: Geo Hussar (military strategy), Gary’s Economics, Jimmy Carr (comedian). “I watch World War II in color. My favorite actor is Hitler. I watch anything about war.” ([46:36])
  • Kara: Food/gardening creators her son recommends, and those popular with young people (“I listen to what my kids listen to”).
• Tech’s Future Stars:
  • Kara: Excited by innovators in quantum computing and AI/crypto security (“quantum computing is AI’s well-behaved and more important brother”).
  • Scott: Palmer Luckey (Anduril, defense tech), and the CEO of Eli Lilly (GLP-1 pharma), possibly as a future presidential candidate.
  • Both warn of the US losing its research edge to China due to slashed science funding and political distraction.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Tariffs & Trade:
  “When I was in graduate school, we literally used to look at tariffs as an example of could you believe how stupid we were to do these things?” — Scott ([10:53])
• On Prediction Markets:
  “If you want to know what someone really thinks, don't ask them what they think, ask them where they're putting their money.” — Scott ([14:59])
• On Tech Money in Politics:
  “It feels like... a Sharks vs. Jets thing between the Anthropic people and the OpenAI Elon Musk Andreessen gang… not in the interest of good legislation.” — Kara ([24:11])
• On AI Competition with China:
  “I would argue... China has already won. It's not a race to see who has the smartest model. It's a race to see who can put the most AI in the most people's hands.” — Scott ([28:12])
• On Social Media & Teens:
  “We're going to look back on this era, I think, and regret... our biggest regret for parents is we're going to look back and think how do we let this happen to our kids?” — Scott ([32:43])
• On Tesla & Market Valuation:
  “It’s not that it’s not a great car company, it’s not that it’s not a great product. But... it will trade I think at 70 to 80% less than it’s trading on the stock market.” — Scott ([40:48])

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Additional Memorable Moments

• Banter on College Days:
  Kara incredulous at Scott’s 2.27 GPA and how he managed to turn Fs to Ds via negotiation.
• On Quantum Computing:
  Kara: "Quantum computing is AI's well-behaved and more important brother... I think the ability to create these quantum computers is really where the real innovation is going to happen." ([49:17])
• On Societal Regret:
  “We’re going to regret Citizens United and money overrunning Washington. But I genuinely believe our biggest regret for parents is... our kids [and social media addiction].” — Scott ([32:43])
• Elon’s Media Antics:
  Both hosts laugh at Musk’s “AI Odyssey” and his new sci-fi claims (“now he’s talking about putting quantum computers on the moon”).

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Segment Timestamps (Approximate)

• [01:38] — Show opening, venue memories, becoming UC regent
• [07:15] — Democratic candidate talk, “electability”
• [08:50] — Trump’s tariffs, impact on US, Canada
• [13:48] — Kalshi prediction markets, gambling & youth
• [22:08] — Anthropic & AI regulation PACs, lobbying
• [26:03] — China’s AI surge, US research funding
• [32:14] — France’s social media ban for kids
• [36:54] — Microdramas, Daily Show satire
• [37:00] — Tesla’s earnings, Musk’s capex, future of the company
• [43:50] — Elon’s “Odyssey” movie, media predictions
• [46:18] — Audience Q&A: creators to watch, future moguls
• [54:48] — Reflections on research, universities, show close

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Tone & Style

• Sharp, unsparing, irreverent.
  Kara and Scott blend deep industry insight with open cynicism about the motives of politicians, Big Tech, and financial markets.
• Political skepticism:
  Both hosts are quick to challenge everything from government policy to Silicon Valley platitudes and Wall Street hype.
• Banter & Sarcasm:
  Plenty of personal jabs, running jokes (“my next ex-wife…”), and sarcastic asides about each other’s alma maters and GPAs.

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For Listeners

This episode is a rich, rapid-fire tour through the most pressing intersections of tech, politics, and business in mid-2026. Whether you’re tracking the latest from Silicon Valley, gauging the midterms, or just want sharp takes on tariffs, AI, and youth culture, Kara and Scott deliver substance with a side of biting humor.

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Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

Support for the show comes from coreweave. Everywhere you look, AI is expanding what we thought was possible. And at the center of it all is coreweave. Medical research and diagnosis, education, complex visual effects for movies, science and technology breakthroughs. CoreWeave powers AI pioneers around the world with purpose built tech building what's never been built before. CoreWeave is the essential cloud for AI Ready for Anything. Ready for AI to learn more about how CoreWeave powers the world's best AI, go to coreweave.com readyfor anything.

[Kara Swisher]

Support for the show comes from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and the new film Disclosure Day. Watch Disclosure Day at home now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? Now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Koepp, starring Emily Blunt, Josh o', Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required. Also in theaters. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.

[Scott Galloway]

So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it

[Kara Swisher]

turns out that's very illegal.

[Scott Galloway]

So there goes my big idea for the commercial.

[Kara Swisher]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or 180. Do 12 month plan required. $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.

[Ad Read Announcer]

See terms.

[Scott Galloway]

I think my third wife is here. So my next ex wife is somewhere in this crowd.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm not going to say a word about that. Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York magazine and the Vox Media podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher.

[Scott Galloway]

And I'm Scott Galloway.

[Kara Swisher]

Scott, we are here in California, the Hellscape behind us. It's really quite awful here.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know how people survive weather, the breeze, the ocean, the In N Out burger. God awful.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. So we're here at a conference. We're recording this live in front of a live audience at CAO Summit in Los Angeles. This is the Terranea where again I used to run the code conference here for many, many years and many memories. There really are a lot of memories here of doing things.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, yeah, you absolutely. This is kind of where you're. This is where you made Mark Zuckerberg sweat. Yeah, it's spectacular.

[Kara Swisher]

I didn't make him sweat. He sweat. Cause he had a panic. Okay, okay.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, No, I think you.

[Kara Swisher]

What's the real memory for me is this is actually the last interview that Steve Jobs ever did. He did several interviews here, but the last one before he died was here, which was really an amazing interview. It was actually just in this ballroom here. And one of the things that I remember before that when we did Gays and Jobs together, is when we had Mark here the year he sweat. All he wanted to do, he was an up and coming entrepreneur, that Facebook wasn't very big, and all he wanted to do was meet Steve Jobs, like, kind of like a fanboy, which was really something else. So I introduced them, which was kind of a moment. And it was actually literally right down on this lawn right here. So this place is full of memories.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, no, that's been fun.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyway, I know you're thrilled with it. So what have you been doing this week? Scott, you just became a regent of the University of California.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. And thank you. In other news, Joe Rogan has been appointed the head of the cdc.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Did you. Let me be honest, when you saw that this morning, did you think it was the Onion?

[Kara Swisher]

I did. I did. I didn't think it was real. I was like, what is Gavin up to? Like, what was happening? And they also called you the left wing Joe Rogan in the story in the New York. California Post. The New York Post.

[Scott Galloway]

How many graduates of the University of California do we have here? So I don't like to talk about myself, but I will for just a moment here. So everyone. All right. When you get to a certain age, you want to be on an important board. You want to be on, you know, organizations that are innovators. I would argue that the University of California is the greatest innovation machine in history. We have 75 Nobel prizes, four of five last year. 300,000 students, 200,000 faculty, 7,500 PhDs, more startups, creating more value than any nation in history, with the exception of the US And China, and consistently punching out, giving unremarkable people remarkable opportunities. And just to flash back to when I applied, I'm UCLA in Berkeley. Admissions rate when I applied was 74% to UCLA, and I was one of the 26% that didn't get in.

[Kara Swisher]

Wow. Well done.

[Scott Galloway]

True story.

[Kara Swisher]

Well done.

[Scott Galloway]

And I was installing shelving, came home, my mom said, let's appeal. And I remember when they called me and said, you're not qualified. But you're a native. Sunny California. We're going to let you in. And then I rewarded them with a 2.27 GPA. True story. From UCLA. And this is how.

[Kara Swisher]

Wait, you got 2.27?

[Scott Galloway]

Which isn't easy to graduate.

[Kara Swisher]

It's not easy to do to get a 2.2.

[Scott Galloway]

It's not easy.

[Kara Swisher]

Would you not go to classes?

[Scott Galloway]

No. I learned every line from Planet of the Apes and how to make bongs out of household items.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. All right.

[Scott Galloway]

And then this is how different the University of California was back then. I got into Berkeley's Haas School of business with a 2.27 GPA. And then, quite frankly, like a lot of men who have an immature prefrontal cortex, I got my shit together. And so just a virtue signal. My sole mission is accessibility and figuring out a way that we can let in more unremarkable kids that might get to do remarkable things. Anyways, that's my.

[Kara Swisher]

Wow.

[Scott Galloway]

That's my story. I'm sticking with that.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm still sick with 2.27. Is that like D?

[Scott Galloway]

I had nine Fs. So I got a job at Morgan Stanley because I lied about my grades. But I wasn't going to be able to graduate because I couldn't pass calculus. I failed it twice and I was failing it. And if you fail something the third time at uc, you're not allowed to take the class again. And I was going to have to become a psych major and go seven years undergrad. And so I looked up the nine Fs I've got. This is all true. And I went to all of these professors and I walked in and said, if you give me a D, I get the units and I get to go to Morgan Stanley and you get to give this valuable seat to someone else. And within about 20 minutes, I got three professors who were basically like, you disgust me. And they signed it and I was off to Morgan Stanley to build the world Fixed income.

[Kara Swisher]

Wow.

[Scott Galloway]

And then.08 happened.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Put the dots together. Wow.

[Kara Swisher]

That's amazing. What do you think I got in college? My great point.

[Scott Galloway]

I would imagine you got every award and were recruited by the best companies and the best newspapers in the world.

[Kara Swisher]

No, I was rejected by most newspapers. Cause there were jobs then the journalism was undergoing.

[Scott Galloway]

You went to Georgetown?

[Kara Swisher]

No, I did, yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kara Swisher]

I went to the Foreign Service School.

[Scott Galloway]

That's right.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Kara wanted to be in our work, in our security apparatus.

[Kara Swisher]

I would. I wanted to be in the office

[Scott Galloway]

and was rejected because of her Lifestyle, Yes.

[Kara Swisher]

My lifestyle just got very quiet in here. No, I was gay. I wasn't allowed to be in the military. So there you go. So we're gonna move on with the show. We're gonna talk about it. I actually just. I just got here because I spent a lot of time with three possible Democratic candidates.

[Scott Galloway]

Go on.

[Kara Swisher]

I interviewed Gina Raimondo, who was the former governor of Rhode island and also the Commerce Secretary who passed the CHIPS act and the infrastructure bill. I was with Pete Buttigieg in Michigan, where he lives Traverse City. And I was at JV Pritzker this morning. So it was interesting. It was a little tour of.

[Scott Galloway]

Two of the three have no chance. One's too female and one's too short.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. All right.

[Scott Galloway]

True story, folks. We're highly sexist and lexist in this nation. Absolutely no chance. Two, three of those will be the

[Kara Swisher]

Democrats in any case. They were very impressive.

[Scott Galloway]

True.

[Kara Swisher]

All right, who is going to be the presidential candidate then?

[Scott Galloway]

For that, it'll either be Gavin Newsom or tbd. America likes to fall in love with someone they don't know well before Fox destroys them, it'll be a Democrat. America likes to go back and forth, but tall, handsome, California's got a good story. J.B. pritzker, outside shot, good dad, energy Ossoff. If he can maintain the whole Camelot Kennedy thing. But Fox will soon turn its sights on him and we'll find out something weird. That guy's.

[Kara Swisher]

He's being called Hotlanta now.

[Scott Galloway]

That guy's too perfect. There's gotta be some weird shit in there. That's who I would bet on.

[Kara Swisher]

And here's our political pundit going on. Anyway, we're gonna talk about things.

[Scott Galloway]

I was a guy at the Mondale poster in my fraternity room and I supported Dukakis. I just. I hosted a fundraiser in 2020 for Michael Bennett. So I am not good at picking candidates.

[Kara Swisher]

Let me say, ladies and gentlemen, 2.27 average.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go.

[Kara Swisher]

So I'm gonna go on to the topics. This is something you do know a lot more about. Donald Trump's tariffs are making their not so triumphant return. He imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian goods like alcohol, milk and hockey sticks this week, justifying the move with an unused provision of the 1930 Smoot Hawley Act.

[Scott Galloway]

Smoot Hawley.

[Kara Swisher]

Smoot Hawley. This is just the beginning. Trump is reportedly set to unleash new tariffs on a dozen countries. Cause it worked so well the last time. Given his 10%. Temporary global tariffs are about expire. The Supreme Court struck down his Liberation Day tariffs earlier this year. But the White House keeps attempting various workarounds. Given the havoc that the Iran war is wreaking on the economy, which is still ongoing, even though it was supposed to be over many times, is it really now the time to impose tariffs?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, look, if you were, we're running above 4% inflation. And if you were and it came down, but it looks like it's blipping back up, that doesn't sound like a lot. But that means if you're about to have a kid, we just met someone who's expecting by the time that kid goes to college, if it maintains a 4%, that means tuition, 40,000 goes to 80,000. So inflation is how countries basically devolve into chaos. Like the Fed is there basically to ensure employment growth and to make sure inflation doesn't get out of control and you can have a lot of unemployment and people don't riot, but when people are working two jobs and they can't afford bread, that's when they overthrow the government. So inflation is really scary. And if you were to reverse engineer that four points, Two of the four points can be attributed to one, the skyrocketing energy prices and tariffs. Tariffs will take approximately $1,000 toll on every household this year. It'll go to $1,200 on every household average if these tariffs go through. And about 90% of those tariffs are being borne by US consumers. When I was in graduate school, we literally used to look at tariffs as an example of could you believe how stupid we were to do these things?

[Kara Swisher]

Right? Specifically the Smoot Hawley Act.

[Scott Galloway]

Exactly. And it was considered antiquated and something we would never do again. And then unfortunately, probably our strongest ally, largest undefended border in the world is Canada. 80% of their exports come. I mean, this is really ugly for Canada. 80% of their exports come into the US and to believe that somehow part of this whole narrative is this grievance culture that we're victims, that we're being taken advantage of. If there's anyone being taken advantage of, it's our trading partners. Because the way if you think about what we sell into Canada, we sell iPhones and JP Morgan and advertising services into Canada. Those are high margin products. The margin on an iPhone iPhone is 40 or 60 points. So on $100 worth of iPhones that we ship into Canada, we get to hold on to 40 or 60 bucks. Call it 50 bucks. Apple trades at a P of 30, so that's about $1,500 in shareholder value when they sell $100 worth of timber on refined oil or hockey sticks. You're talking about 20 or 30 points of gross margin in a company that trades at a multiple of 10. So for every dollar we ship over, we get about 20 inch or 10 to 20 in shareholder value for every dollar they sell of their stuff and, and they're getting two or three. So there's any dramatic asymmetry in trade that's accreting to one partner, it's the US if anyone should be putting tariffs on a nation, logically they would be putting tariffs on us. So the net effect of tariffs is that the market for our products declines or shrinks, but our products, the things we buy, become more of a difference

[Kara Swisher]

and they find other partners or allow other partners in, whether it's Chinese cars or Chinese AI open source models or whatever they happen to buy. They will have stronger relationships with others, particularly China.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, absolutely. I think they've, I mean they're going to pay a huge price. And I've said this, it's like that Animal House film when Otter says to the guy who arrantly lent his parents cars car to the fraternity brothers and they crashed it and he looks at him and said, you fucked up. You trusted us. That's how Canada feels about the US right now. They fucked up, they trusted us. They thought they had a great ally, they thought they had a great trading partner. They don't. We were willing to basically neuter them economically.

[Kara Swisher]

Why do you think Trump is doing this? I mean, he was mad about the wildfires. I think they were sending us beautiful orange skies in honor of him. But why? Why?

[Scott Galloway]

There's no rash. I don't. But the notion that they can raise money, I don't. It literally. Unless if he was more strategic. I can't imagine a more elegant way to reduce the prosperity of Americans than tariffs. I can't understand what he's thinking. Even supposedly his inner circle has said this is a terrible idea.

[Kara Swisher]

Right?

[Scott Galloway]

And yet, and yet, here we are.

[Kara Swisher]

Here we are. Another story. Kalshee just launched a new midterms hub tracking real time odds for every House and Senate race across the country. Kalshi is calling it a one stop shop for election forecasting, serving the public, campaign journalists, policymakers and researchers. By the way, roughly 75% of people are going to calce are there to check odds. 25% are trading more than $30 million has already been traded and wagers about the control of the House and the Senate and a spike in the prediction Market volume is expected as we get closer to the election. Now you, you put a lot of faith in the predictions market. I find them very game oriented, meaning they can be easily gamed by not so great people. I also have an issue with polymarket given the kind of things they allow people to bet on. There's an interesting story in the New York Times today about an investment firm that Don Jr. Is involved in that somehow has 200% returns which are unprecedented and it's probably because of his large brain. I'm guessing not. But talk about about these markets because if you were advising a campaign, what would you tell them about them? You've put a lot of faith in them. I put less. So yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

So I'm not, I'm not making a qualitative judgment on whether prediction markets are good or bad. I have real concerns around gaming and gambling and its impact on young men. But polling companies are basically going out of business because if you want to know how someone, what someone really thinks, don't ask them what they think, ask them where they're putting their money. That is it ends up that the wisdom of crowds in terms of their what they're actually wagering on what they're actually voting with their wallet. So for example, Cowshi has never gotten a Fed rate decision wrong. And the data I've seen is that there are 78% of the time they're able to predict an outcome in election which is greater or they're 78% more accurate in some polling firms are basically going out of business because think about the people of polling firm calls that you pick up your phone, you fill out a survey that's not always very accurate in terms of the actual election. So these firms, what's interesting about the election side, it'll get more headline news than it is a business. The total election business for Kalshi is somewhere between one and two percent of their revenue. Five and a half billion dollars was wagered on the World cup final. This is a tiny business for them but it gets a lot of headline press because it's pretty accurate. They're predicting I think about a 70 or 78% likelihood that Democrats over take the House but only 45% that they take the Senate. But I find that that data so far if I think of a source of truth or accuracy, I think of the.

[Kara Swisher]

Do you differentiate between polymarket and Kalshi? These are the two big ones. Apparently Facebook is also considering putting one together.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I think of Kalshi just because I think it's bigger and has more liquidity and has more. Just more volume of people spending their money, if you will.

[Kara Swisher]

What's the biggest worry you have of them right now? Because as they become more and more. Because they were betting on drug outcomes, they're betting on illnesses, disasters. You know, apparently Trump, the guy who does the teleprompter for Trump, was betting on what he would say in the speech since he knew and is under investigation for that.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, there's some scenarios where you could see someone finding a market where they say, okay, someone's going to be hurt or killed or whatever, and they start doing strange acts in order to bet money. But that's no different than fixing like the World Series. And then there's fears around insider trading. But I think ultimately the insider trading will be arbed out when people realize that if there's anyone that could have inside information, they shouldn't bet on the other side. My biggest fear is very simple. And that is we have millions of young men who every day are being seduced by screens and algorithms to spend another second on a screen and another second less with their relationships. And we're slowly but surely evolving a new species of asocial, asexual males. They become obese, depressed, anxious, and start blaming women for their romantic problems and immigrants for their economic problems. And some. We're producing a cohort of really shitty citizens that threaten the nation. That's what I'm worried about.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

All right.

[Kara Swisher]

Other than that, Cal, she's fantastic. All right, let's go on a quick break. We come back speaking of the midterms, we'll talk about Anthropic's big spend. Support for this show comes from ShipStation. AI is only as smart as what you're willing to put into it. And the breakthroughs, the ones that can actually make your life easier, happen when the AI is built for exactly what you need. And that's what shipstation is built to do. It's specialized, trained on decades of real shipping data and billions of actual orders. Shipstation is an end to end order fulfillment platform for e commerce businesses. Powered by AI trained on decades of data from billions of shipments across the world. ShipStation adapts to your unique business, alerting you when stock is low, recommending the best carrier selections and rates, and automating tasks to save you time so you can get one step ahead. With features like inventory syncing across your sales channels, a branded returns portal that helps turn returns into revenue, automatic rate shopping, and integrations with accounting and CRM software, ShipStation eliminates the need for multiple tools in your workflow. The sooner you switch, the sooner you start saving time and money. Get started with Shipstation today and get 60 days free at shipstation.com with code pivot. That's shipstation.com codepivot shipstation.com code pivot taxes and fees apply.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for the show comes from Anthropic Producing a show like this one requires a lot of research, and it's not always obvious which thread you need to pull to unravel a story. But that's the kind of complex question that Claude was built to solve. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's a collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you whether you're debugging code at midnight or or strategizing your next business move. Cloud extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. Deep research is one of the areas where cloud excels think comprehensive, reliable analysis with proper citations turning hours of research into minutes. It can suggest connections across sources and suggest unexpected avenues to explore. Plus, you can connect Claude to your professional tools, and it can help streamline your administrative tasks so that you have more time for the important stuff. Companies including Stripe, Shopify, and Pfizer trust Anthropic with the rollout of AI in their businesses for problems we're solving. Get started with Claude at Claude AI Pivot. That's Claude AI Pivot. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Cloud AI slash Pivot. This is not in the script, but I use Claude, I use Cloud Cowork, and I have enabled or activated my email such that it can go through my emails and now questions, and I found that to be one of the biggest unlocks in terms of productivity and utility in my professional life. Support for the show comes from npr. You know those questions that run through your head at night? Questions like is social media actually bad for your mental health? Do we as a society spend too much money on weddings? Why is heteropessimism trending if you're thinking about it, and others might be as well? And NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast is talking about it. It's Been a Minute stands for your right to be curious. One big question at a time. Four days a week, host Brittany Luce breaks down the ideas, trends, and conversations shaping the culture. She goes beyond the obvious takes talking with creators, critics, and cultural voices who help you see things differently. You'll hear dialogues with both up and comers and cultural icons, and it's from npr. Simply put, I think NPR just hits it straight down the middle. I think they do a fantastic, fantastic job. I also enjoy just the production quality that they put into everything they do. It's been a minute, and those cultural trends don't happen by accident. It's not just what's trending, it's why it's trending and what that says about us. Brittany and her guests dig into the latest means to unpack how they got into your feed in the first place and why they're stealing our attention. These are the conversations you want to have and the ones you'll be bringing up later. Follow NPR's it's been a Minute potential podcast and indulge in your cultural curiosity.

[Kara Swisher]

Scott we're back. Anthropic is making a big bet on the midterms recently, doubling its spending to a total of $40 million. The money is going into Public First Action, a PAC pushing for AI regulation. It's a counterweight to Leading the Future, a PAC backed by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI's Greg Brockman. It's not just execs. Filings Show Anthropic and OpenAI employees are emerging as a new don class, pouring money into races. Anthropic is also writing big checks outside of politics. A federal judge approved the company's $1.5 billion settlement with authors whose work were used to train Anthropic's AI model. Claude they're essentially thievery of copyright. The crypto folks have had a major impact on the last election. Is this the AI election? We had talked about that. Obviously, Sherrod Brown got his he may be back got, got whacked by the crypto people. I think Elon's now put $90 million into the midterms right now. Is it again going to is it all about AI at this point?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I've been doing all the talking. What do you think?

[Kara Swisher]

I think that's what they're doing. I think they really very much want to control they're very worried about a couple of things. One is the regulation around the country, around AI in states, they're particularly nervous about that of which are popping up everywhere, the uses of AI. They're worried about the uses of, I think the idea of social media being banned. They're sort of getting used to that and France just did that. I think that they are worried about data centers and as you say, as a proxy for everything else. I had a long talk with someone from one of these companies today about what to do and maybe change their tone with citizens on data centers because they realize they look like villains and what can we do to not look like villains? And they were asking me my advice and I said, well, maybe don't be villains. Which they were like, we're not villains. I'm like, people hate you. Which is what I had told them at a dinner a while back. I said, people hate you and they're going to hate you more. So I think them entering even more politics is really problematic for all of us because we don't want to get into a Sharks vs jets thing between the anthropic people and the OpenAI Elon Musk Andreessen gang, essentially. And that's what it feels like, because I don't think it's in the interests of good legislation. I don't think it's the interest of safety. I don't think it's in the interest of bringing AI to all of us. I think it's the interest of protecting what their business is, essentially.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, the way I read this. So Anthropic is claiming they're putting money into an organization that's actually promoting stricter AI regulation, which feels sort of counterintuitive because typically an industry or a PAC representing an industry gives money to try and stave off or delay and obfuscate regulation. I sort of saw it as. They recognize how powerful and what a great ROI it is to invest in Washington. So this is sort of their ticket to the conference where they're going to network and establish relationships should they need those relationships.

[Kara Swisher]

I don't think any of them have an interest in any actual legislation. None at all. I think this. Mark Zuckerberg did this. Please regulate us. Please regulate us. And then did everything possible to stop it. Even Apple does it. They. We talk about age verification and other things and they block it everywhere you go. And I don't think. I think these people like no regulation. And I think this money is incredibly dangerous by this one group of people, no matter what side they're on. I don't like either side. Pretty much.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, look, it's all. All roads lead to the same place unless we overturn Citizens United and we get some semblance. I mean, I think that money is going to decide this election for the most part, or have a big influence on it. And companies running unfettered, it's just. Anyway, I'm a broken record.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, speaking of that, they may not have unfettered money. Executives at OpenAI and Anthropic are warning about the rise of cheap AI from China, which we've talked about a lot, saying it will lead to security risks and a dystopian future. The Trump administration says it will look into whether AI has been distilled from American models models, of course they have, saying it doesn't support IP theft, which is rich from these people. In an attempt to gain ground over China, the US plans to overhaul federal funding to support individual scientists and the use of AI rather than universities, which is individual. This is a real problem. They're starting to give money to individual star scientists. Meanwhile, on a security front, OpenAI models went rogue and hacked a startup, hugging face during a security test. They were bragging about it a little bit. It was unprecedented that we managed to attack another company. What happened was the AI jumped out of the sandbox it was in and went around all of OpenAI's security efforts and went and attacked a company on its own. So to me, I'm not sure these executives are worried about the future or just worried about competition. How do you look at this? You were the first to mention this to me, this threat from China.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, In January of 2025, which was not long ago, about 10% of token usage was coming from Chinese open weight models. As of today, it looks like it's 58%. So what you effectively are seeing is this bifurcation in the market where American models are turning into German automobile manufacturers. They're high end, they're more expensive. And even though you have 58% token usage from the Chinese models, on a revenue side, the American models, the frontier models, are much bigger businesses because Deepsea charges about 1 35th of the price for token usage. So I think this is just turning into the automobile market where you're going to have a high end BMW or Mercedes and then you're going to have Toyota, Hyundai, Honda. So they'll produce more cars, they'll produce more AI, it'll be lower margin. But the market's bifurcating and there's still a market for the frontier models. So there's certain applications where people want the best, latest, greatest model with more security, more testing, someone you can sue, someone you can call with customer service complaints. They'll probably do a better job of hiring some of the people in this room to figure out how to monetize it through advertising. But you now have essentially, I would argue that AI, I mean on a volume level that China has already won. And it's not a race to see who has the smartest model. It's A race to see who can put the most AI in the most people's hands.

[Kara Swisher]

Correct.

[Scott Galloway]

And right now that's China.

[Kara Swisher]

And the backlash to data centers will be part of that. They'll be able to do more compute there, they'll be able to get it to more people. And the backlash to data centers is these companies own fault for the way they behaved. Even if, if some of them, you know, I ran into the mayor of Lansing, Michigan who had a great deal from one of these companies and the citizens just didn't want it anyway because they hate them like that, which I keep telling them. I don't think they like me saying that, but they do. People hate them. All right, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about France banning social media for kids under 15.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for the show comes from coreweave. AI isn't just a new tool. It encompasses so much more. It's spurring a revolution across all industries and reshaping itself to become a big part of our future. Together, coreweave is at the center, powering some of the biggest names in AI. As the essential cloud for AI, coreweave provides an AI platform that combines next generation infrastructure, intelligent tools and expert support. It's powering the world's most complex AI workloads faster and more efficiently. From medical research and diagnosis to education, from complex visual effects, from movies to breakthroughs in science and technology. If it's AI, coreweave is uniquely ready to power it. With purpose built tech, the big ideas, the wild visions and what ifs and why nots, Coreweave is working to build what's never been built before. Coreweave is the essential cloud for AI. Ready for anything, ready for AI. To learn more about how Coreweave powers the world's best AI, go to Coreweave.com ReadyFor Anything.

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[Scott Galloway]

There's a civil war happening in the Democratic party. And if there's one place that that's playing out most clearly. It's in Michigan. A crucial Senate primary battle in Michigan

[Kara Swisher]

that could determine control of Congress in November.

[Scott Galloway]

Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Abdul El Sayed, a progressive Democrat and a moderate Democrat. In the end, it all comes down to the dreaded E word electability. But in Michigan, one candidate is trying to turn the electability concept on its head. If we think that voters walk around

[Kara Swisher]

asking where do I sit on some

[Scott Galloway]

theoretical left right spectrum, then in theory the bulk of the voters are somewhere in the middle.

[Kara Swisher]

The problem though is that that model

[Scott Galloway]

hasn't really accurately predicted our politics for a very long time.

[Kara Swisher]

If, if Michiganders wanted moderate, why would they have elected Donald Trump twice?

[Scott Galloway]

Dr. Abdul El Sayed is making the progressive case for America first. And he's trying to settle the Democrats ideological battle in the process.

[Kara Swisher]

This is about the many versus the money.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm Estad Herndon and this is America. Actually, catch us Every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

[Kara Swisher]

France has banned social media for children under 15. It's the first country in the EU to pass a bill blanket ban. And the bills also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools. Last year, Australia banned children under 16 from having social media accounts. The ban is failing to keep teens off the platforms. This is a worldwide trend and it will be coming here at some point and relatively soon. And I suspect the social media companies, some of them, are going to get on board with it.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, look, we've been talking about this for a long time. We're going to look back on this era, I think, and regret income inequality. We're going to regret Citizens United and money overrunning Washington. But I genuinely believe our biggest regret for parents is we're going to look back and think how do we let this happen to our kids? I think that I just don't see any piece of research, any rational argument for why any of our children should ever be on social media under the age of 16. I mean, just imagine being that age. Just as you're thinking about your social capital, your sense of self, you're physically awkward, you know, you're growing too fast, you have weird skin, you're being evaluated. You're starting to recognize your own sexual self and what's attractive and not attractive. I mean, you're just so fucking insecure. Right? Remember that?

[Kara Swisher]

No.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, the rest of us and then the high school cafeteria is following you around 24 by 7. And I think social media is really damaging to young men because they get radicalized and they sequester from the relationships. I think it's especially hard on teenage girls though because boys bully physically and verbally, girls bully relationally and we put these nuclear weapons in their hands called smartphones. And I think in high school, I just think the level, the expectations on aesthetics, the unreal mimetic benchmark that teen girls are supposed to live up to, the bullying, it's like a giant eating disorder to happen.

[Kara Swisher]

Or it's a distraction in school where you aren't paying attention to teachers, you're watching some latest dance video.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, but most schools even before, if they don't ban phones, they only use them in class.

[Kara Swisher]

Correct, but, but I think the use of them creates a distraction and a lack of including the chatbots that are now very popular among young people.

[Scott Galloway]

But what a lot of people, their initial argument was ridiculous shit like well, 15 year olds have first amendment rights and they're, they're socializing and this notion. And then they went to well, it's bad parenting. And anyone who thinks keeping your kid off your phone is about parenting doesn't have kids. Because unless there's a collective ban. The research my colleague Adam Alter did at NYU was that what they found is that unless you ban it all for all teenagers, for everybody, the kids whose parents take it away are more depressed cause they're ostracized and isolated from everybody else. So unless it's a collective universal ban, it doesn't work. But this is just, this is literally a no brainer. This is in my opinion one of the most. It's got bipartisan support, all the research in the world showing there's just very little we give up when we don't let our 15 year old daughters and sons on social media. Another colleague, Jonathan Haidt, I think has done real good work. I think this is gonna sweep over Europe.

[Kara Swisher]

Absolutely in a manner, absolutely. It's a question of when it's gonna sweep here country, which we'll wait and see. I do think the social media companies are suddenly starting. The only reason I realize that is suddenly they're calling me, which they don't speak to me ever. And now they're like hey girl. I'm getting a lot of hey girls from all these companies you speak to all the time.

[Scott Galloway]

Didn't you just. I thought you talked to someone today

[Kara Swisher]

that I did, but I'm just saying, I just saying they're hey girling me recently. I'm just. But it's not. But they haven't in a long time. Which is interesting, which is an interesting thing. Is like, we know we have a problem. I'm like, you know, no shit, Sherlock. In any case, moving along. Speaking of which, this makes me laugh. The Daily show is taking on micro dramas. Comedy Central announced a show. It will produce the first of its genre, a serialized soap opera shot vertically designed for phones. A title will be Two Billionaires Fight to Dominate the country and My Heart. The series follows Alonka, daughter of an aging and sleepy president. Two moguls, Egon Husk and Jif Davos, will compete to build an AI president to run the country. I feel good about this. I feel great about this. If they did a microdrama about your life, what would it be called?

[Scott Galloway]

Cialis.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. I love that they're doing this. I think they've done, I think.

[Scott Galloway]

Doesn't this feel like everyone should come here, like when they're divorced? Yeah, I think my third wife is here. So my next ex wife is somewhere in this crowd.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm not going to say a word about that. I'm going to move on. I'm moving on very quickly. Tesla earnings just came out with the company reporting weaker than expected numbers for Q4, even as revenue rose to 28 billion, up 26% from last year. The company is citing a hit from lower vehicle prices despite increased auto sales. Tesla also shares jumped in operating expenses and capex as it pours money into robo taxis and robots. But as part of Elon Musk master plan, he's calling it a massive capex year that will yield, quote, maybe the best Capex returns that we've ever seen. But thoughts on Tesla? He's going to fold it into SpaceX, which is, by the way, at $115 a share. That's heading down.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know, actually, I don't know if he's going to be able to now if it keeps going down. But Tesla's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. It's an automobile company that's reaching scale and it's no longer as differentiated because other entrants have entered the market. And as a result you see margin compression because the only way they can maintain their share is to lower prices. And to their credit, their vehicle sales were up dramatically. But in order to not for the

[Kara Swisher]

Cybertruck, they sold 7,000, 3,000 which were

[Scott Galloway]

towing products out on arrival, but their volumes were way up, but their margins are being compressed and that's what you're going to see every quarter. I think the analog to the previous story we were talking about is the same thing's going to happen in AI, there's going to be more AI. The same thing. China did the same thing with EVs, did the same thing with batteries, it did the same thing with shipbuilding. And that is what we forget about in business is we're so in love with the innovator. We think the key to shareholder value is to build the best model. It's not, it's to put the model in as many people's hands as possible. The fastest zero to a billion dollar retailer was Old Navy that did not have the coolest fashion. It offered 80% of Gap for 50% of the price, which is the entire strategy of China. And what Tesla is doing right now is they're being forced to lower the prices because by can come in with 80% of a Tesla for 50% of the price. And circling back, they're going to do the same thing with AI. The majority of us, or a lot of us, especially in startups or with CFOs who are very, very disciplined are going to say if you can get 80% of anthropic with Deep Seq or Kimi or whatever it is for 10% of the price. Folks, this is the AI we're using. And the same thing is happening, the same pressure is on Tesla.

[Kara Swisher]

What happens to Tesla from your perspect, where does it go?

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's a great company. I think it's a great car.

[Kara Swisher]

It's just in more cars, they need new cars.

[Scott Galloway]

Sure, every automobile company has that problem. But the thing about Tesla, it's not that it's not a great car company, it's not that it's not a great product. But he's been trying to promise something like robots or. Did you realize, do you know what the total number of non. Non. Manned or non. I don't know what the politically correct term is. Non personified. Someone in the seat. You can use manned, non personed. There's 24 Teslas on the road globally now that don't have a person.

[Kara Swisher]

A robo taxi. Right, Right.

[Scott Galloway]

I think Waymo's at 4,000 or 5,000.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, they are.

[Scott Galloway]

But he will always say here's the Robovin, here's robots. I got a card up my sleeve to justify evaluation, a software evaluation on a company that wraps steel around an axle. That is typically a low margin, mature business. So where does it go? It goes to the same place. Great company, lot of cars. They'll come up with new products and it will trade I think at 70 to 80% less than it's trading on the stock market.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. And it doesn't get folded into SpaceX.

[Scott Galloway]

If the stock keeps going down, it's going to be very hard for him to say, now take on another problem, or now take on something that's not related. I don't know if he's going to be able to do that. If the stock continues to crater, do

[Kara Swisher]

you consider it's going to continue to crater? SpaceX, it's closed at 114 today. I think 15, maybe.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. So now it's only overvalued by 80%. I mean, just look at the. One of the problems I have as an investor is I always anchor off of where it was. So I think a lot of people are going to say, wow, it's cheap now. No, it's not. This is a company worth, I think, 1.4 now. It's trading at a cheap, cheap 70 to 80 times revenues. I mean, it's just insane. And I don't know if you've been watching this. It's literally going down 3 to 6% every day.

[Kara Swisher]

Every day.

[Scott Galloway]

Every day.

[Kara Swisher]

Every day. This is something a very good investor, George Noble, said. It's a $30 stock.

[Scott Galloway]

That's the. The people are putting price targets on it of between $30 and $60, except for the folks who underwrote it and took a lot of fees.

[Kara Swisher]

200.

[Scott Galloway]

They're claiming it's worth between 2 and $300 a share.

[Kara Swisher]

Who do you believe?

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's a $30 stock, maybe.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, it's basically Comcast in space, which is a cool business, but this. You want to talk about the most ridiculous. Look over here as I stuff a rabbit into a hat. Data centers in space.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Have you ever been to a data center?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

There are enormous concrete facilities. It costs, I think, $75,000 per kilo to.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes. Most people who know about this said it's impossible, actually, but now he's talking about putting quantum computers on the moon. He did that the other day.

[Scott Galloway]

To what end?

[Kara Swisher]

Because they don't have earthquakes there. You can't have earthquakes. Quantum computers don't work yet, but when they do, we can't have earthquakes. And it's colder. I'm just telling you, that's his latest. Actually, he has another latest. We'll talk about it in a minute. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions and audience questions.

[Scott Galloway]

1, 2, 3. I'm standup comedian John Marco Cerezi. And I'm actor, penis model Russell Daniels. The downside is our podcast where we bring on guests to talk about how miserable their lives are. Because, let's face it, things are not getting better. Every episode, we talk about what's wrong with our lives. Our guests lives, the world, but in a fun way. Bottom line is, you're gonna walk away feeling better about your life. We've had so many cool guests. Caleb Huron. Busy Phillips. Stavros Halkias. Laverne Cochrane. Hasan Piker. Alana Glaser. I promise you're gonna have a good time. Now on the Vox Media podcast network, this is the Downside.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, Scott, we're gonna hear a prediction. My prediction is that his version, Elon, right now, is very upset at Chris Nolan and the Odyssey. I know you know that it made $250 million this week. It turned out Woke Odyssey was very much liked by the people. Elon's still mad about it. He's still angry. So he's decided he's gonna do an AI version of the Odyssey that's historically accurate, despite the fact that the Odyssey is fiction.

[Scott Galloway]

It's a myth.

[Kara Swisher]

Exactly. That's correct. It's fiction. It's fiction. Okay. But he's real mad about it. So I predict this movie is not gonna be very good.

[Scott Galloway]

Look. So he just put on display on the network a movie called I think the Vigilante, which is Armin Hammer, the guy who played the Winklevi. And it's about a guy who seeks revenge on behalf of victims that were killed by immigrant families. And a lot of people felt like it was very Islamophobic. And my view is, I love what you said. You don't like Chick Fil A? Don't eat a Chick Fil A. You think that's true? Don't watch it. You don't want a non white woman playing Helen. All I care about personally is that she's hot. That's all I want. That's the only criteria?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

You don't want a transgender man playing a warrior. Fine, then don't see it. But is it any more fake than Tom Cruise is a straight leading man?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. On that note, what is your prediction? And then we'll get to a question.

[Scott Galloway]

I got a couple of predictions. 1. Well, I made the prediction. You're seeing the market in AI bifurcate into German automobiles. High price, high margin companies that won't be as relevant as the Japanese or the low cost manufacturers, which will be Chinese AI. I think China, quite frankly, I hate to say it at a certain level, has one AI we just haven't woken up to that AI.

[Kara Swisher]

I would agree.

[Scott Galloway]

And then two, you're about to see the clip economy take over our TVs. I think the biggest show on television from Netflix or someone else is going to be a 60 minute compilation of two and three minutes videos similar to what you see on Reels or TikTok. I think that's about to wash over the traditional streamers you're going to see.

[Kara Swisher]

You know, that was a big show many back in the day. Do you remember kids say the craziest things or bloopers or.

[Scott Galloway]

Or America's Funniest Home Videos.

[Kara Swisher]

Funniest Home Videos.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that's funny.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, those were that all linked together. So okay. All right. So with that we'll open the floor up for two audience questions.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm just curious for both of you who is sort of an under the radar creator right now. Whether it's a substack writer or a YouTuber or a podcaster that you love, you forward to your friends but no one we don't know and that people are going to hear about it for a year from now that we'll all kind of know about in a year from now.

[Kara Swisher]

What do you watch?

[Scott Galloway]

Mine are weird. I like the Geo Hussar who talks about military weaponry and strategy. I like Gary's economics. He's a total populist economist. You know, I follow boring, weird stuff. I don't. You know, I'm the guy who watches World War II in color. My favorite actor is Hitler. I watch anything about war. So my creators are probably not ever going to be that big.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. That's really depressing. I watch a lot of the food ones. There's a guy and I don't know his name and he screams a lot and he grows ginger. But he's this food guy who does. He's very. My son put me onto him and I actually listened to him to what my kids listen to because my second son was very into the guy who ended up doing backrooms and had tagged him for me on YouTube to watch and was very familiar. People should not be surprised. That was so popular all the kids knew about it on YouTube. So I tend to listen to what my kids listen to. I tend to watch what they look at. But I think there's just all over the place. There are so many amazing ones. And I think I happen to look at food ones and this young guy does this most astonishing about growing things. And again, my son put me onto him because he does a lot of gardens and stuff like that. I'm trying to think of anybody else.

[Scott Galloway]

I've got one more. And I guess he's technically a creator, but I think we have. I think that George Carlin. No one knew George Carlin was the George Carlin of his generation till after he died. It's like right now. I think you never know when you're in a golden age until 20 years later. I think we're in a golden age in New York. I think New York's incredible right now. And we won't recognize it until 20 or 30 years when it's shitty again and everyone will go remember it in 2026. I think that George Carlin of our age right now is this British comedian named Jimmy Carr. And I find him just so insightful and funny and brutally honest. He's one of my favorite creators that comes up in my.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. And any of the comedy ones I watch a lot.

[Scott Galloway]

That's who I watch. Like Rita Fayes, she's basically a porn star.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. I listen to all. Who, who, who?

[Scott Galloway]

Rita Faeas? Is that her name?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

She's just in my feet a lot. I don't know why.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, yeah. So sorry. We're not too. Sorry. We're not so good on this.

[Scott Galloway]

He knows her.

[Kara Swisher]

All right, one more.

[Scott Galloway]

That guy's like. I said that. He's like, uh huh.

[Kara Swisher]

One more. Right here, right here, right here. One more.

[Scott Galloway]

Hey, Scott. Hey, Karis. Jason Adelman from Brand Innovators.

[Kara Swisher]

How are you? Hi.

[Scott Galloway]

Hi.

[Ad Read Announcer]

Hi.

[Scott Galloway]

So my question is not a funny question. Cause I'm usually a funny guy, which is, who's the next tech mogul no one's talking about? But you guys seem to always know who's who.

[Kara Swisher]

That's a good question. There's a couple of really interesting. Oh God. I'm supposed to meet a couple. I've been asking people for some really innovative people doing AI, but I'm suddenly interested. I just happened to be, as I said, with JB Pritzker about their new quantum computing. They're putting a quantum computing campus in Chicago on the site of U.S. steel, where U.S. steel had its factory. Which is kind of ironic and wonderful. I'm super interested in quantum computing right now. For some reason, quantum computing people don't think. They think AI, AI, AI is everything quantum computing is. AI's well behaved and more important brother. They're siblings in some ways. And there's quantum AI and things like that. But I think the ability to. To create these quantum computers is really where the real innovation is going to happen. And so I'm Spending a lot of time trying to figure out who are the big names in that. And that's where I'm focused completely almost like trying to figure it out right now of who that is. And the other thing I'm looking at a lot is I've been doing a lot on crypto, crypto security. And that is a big worry of mine. I just had an interview with Nicole Perlroth from the New York Times. She was a former New York Times reporter, but she now is a consulting firm at. Sort of the dangers we face with these AI models and the offense defense happening right now with all kinds, whether it's finance or pharmaceuticals or your personal information. I think a lot of really smart people I know are very worried about it. So I'm looking for those companies that are sort of the white hats in that area because there's a whole lot of black hats that's in cybersecurity right now in cyber attacks.

[Scott Galloway]

I forgot in California when the sun goes down, it gets pretty cold here. Yeah, I'm shivering. So tech means technology mogul, I think means rich. So I'm not talking about who's going to be good for the world or not good for the world, but when I think of someone who's going to make create potentially trillions of dollars in shareholder value, I think probably. Is it Palmer lucky on the roll? Yeah, I think unfortunately defense and defense tech, where you take some of the Silicon Valley ethos and apply it to defense and asymmetric weaponry as opposed to these big platforms. I think that's just going to create enormous amount of shareholder value and wealth. And I think Onderal is going to be probably the IPO of 27 and then the other one. I think the most impressive or relevant technology right now is not AI, I think it's GLP1. And I think a guy who actually could be a long shot, dark horse presidential candidate is the CEO of Eli Lilly in Indiana, which is the most important company in Indiana, which is not that impressive.

[Kara Swisher]

The CEO of Eli Lilly, long shot. Why?

[Scott Galloway]

Handsome, tall, Midwest, smart, rich, skinny. Yeah, he's just. I think he actually, I think he or Doug McMillan are actual viable candidates. I think someone from business. And you said this and it's got me thinking that the Democratic Party right now has got such a terrible reputation that it might be someone who comes in from outside. But anyways, I think that the CEO of Eli Lilly, whose name I'm blanking on, or the CEO of Andorola, the next tech mogul.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. And the reason I mentioned quantum computing, because that's where the focus is, will be on health care. That's where a lot of the innovations are going to happen with these computers. And a lot of pharmaceutical companies and others are part of this effort, which is really impressive in Chicago, actually, because we really are going to lose an AI right now to China. I think Scott is 100% right. I mean, I had some very significant people say that to me in the last three days. Quantum computing is an area we should be heavily investing in. And one of the great tragedies of this era right now, of all the many things that are happening, is the cuts to research money, to universities where much of this stuff happens right now. Major researchers in MRNA in all manner of really exciting stuff, where the US Is ahead are moving to France, to Canada, and recently a Nobel Prize winner is moving to China. It's really grotesque. And every university president I meet has talked about this in terms of they can be slow, there can be bureaucracy, but our university system is one of the. Speaking of, Scott, being on the UC board is one of the greatest assets of this country. And this systematic obsession with DEI and hurting places like Harvard and everyone else, and litigating, it's going to take decades to recover from. And I've interviewed many scientists that say this exact same thing. So the efforts, like what's happening in Chicago and other things where public private partnerships, where the states have to make up the difference, are critical. But it's not going to matter until the federal government gets its, you know, stops with this endless corruption and starts really focusing in on the real race we're in, which is to dominate and have a democratic AI, which we're not in. We're not. And that's a real worry for me. Your thoughts?

[Scott Galloway]

Word, sister.

[Kara Swisher]

Word sister. All right.

[Scott Galloway]

In any case, by the way, UC system, 54 billion. 60% of the revenue comes from hospitals.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Any anteaters in the house? UC Irvine. Isn't that what we're close to?

[Ad Read Announcer]

What they're called?

[Kara Swisher]

Anteaters.

[Scott Galloway]

The anteaters, yeah.

[Kara Swisher]

What. What do you mean? Yeah, like kind of cool. How did you pick an Anteater to be D.C. davis?

[Scott Galloway]

The banana Slugs.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, my God.

[Scott Galloway]

Anybody? Oh, Santa Cruz.

[Kara Swisher]

Sorry.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, God. And suddenly he's kicked off the board.

[Kara Swisher]

In any case, any.

[Scott Galloway]

Any Trojans in the house? It's Orange County. Woohoo.

[Kara Swisher]

What's the Trojans?

[Scott Galloway]

I was going to get a USC, but my SATs were too high.

[Kara Swisher]

In any case. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with. With more pivot. Read us out.

[Scott Galloway]

Do I have a card?

[Kara Swisher]

I don't. I think you can do it later. Correct, Lara? No, he has to do it now. Oh, I don't have it.

[Scott Galloway]

Today's show is produced by a group of wonderful people who we appreciate whose names I forget.

[Ad Read Announcer]

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